November 20th 2023
LES Fridge does not believe his team are lacking confidence despite drawing a blank against 10-man Fraserburgh at Bellslea on Saturday off the back of Wednesday night’s heavy defeat to Brora Rangers, writes Graeme Macleod. He said: “We played some nice football but we just need to put the ball in the back of the net. It did not happen on Saturday but I do not think that is down to a lack of confidence – we would not have played as well as we did if we were lacking in confidence.” The Broch were reduced to 10 men 40 minutes into the game but it was an advantage County were unable to capitalise upon, partly due to playing into the strong wind in the second half which suited Fraserburgh’s plan to play on the counter attack with a man less. Fridge added: “I thought we controlled a lot of the game but the conditions were absolutely horrific with the pouring rain and the gale-force wind and that impacted upon both teams. “We were playing with the wind behind us in the first half and had the bulk of the play but were just unable to find that first goal. “Although they went down to 10 men, their player was sent off just before half time and then in the second half, they were playing with the wind and that effectively became their eleventh man if you like as they played everything forward downwind and attempted to hem us in – all they did in the was play the ball long from one end to the other. That made it difficult for us because it was a challenge to get out playing into the strong wind, which would have suited them given they had a man less and we were trying to push to get something out of the game. “I still thought we played a lot of good football during the game though, particularly in the second half. We got the ball down and played and created what I thought were three or four really decent chances but we were not able to take one of them – it was as simple as that.” Graeme Macleod
